On July 7, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed (with costs) the application of Sobey’s West Inc. to appeal the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal resecting the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia (CPBC) bylaw that prohibits incentives. This means that the bylaws of CPBC prohibiting inducements stand, and are not subject to further appeal. This is an important decision, not only with respect to the merits of the bylaw, but also with respect to the authority of regulating bodies.
While this decision is important to the case of Sobey’s West Inc. vs the Alberta College of Pharmacists, ACP must continue its appeal of the decision of Court of Queen’s Bench Justice V.O. Ouellette, whose decision failed to support the amendments to ACP’s Standards and Code of Ethics respecting inducements. Further to the article in the spring edition of aφnews, ACP has filed its intention to appeal with the Alberta Court of Appeal, and our legal counsel is in the process of writing our factum to support our application. We hope to have a hearing date this calendar year.
ACP’s position on this subject and concern about pharmacies offering inducements on the condition that an individual purchase a drug or professional service, remain unchanged. While the appeal process is making its way through the court, we do not support encouraging individuals to transfer their care through any type of inducement. We respect the right of individuals to exercise choice in transferring care; however, we do not support this being encouraged and incented by health professionals for reasons that do not relate to the health care of the patient. Principle 1 of the Code of Ethics remains in full effect. It requires that each pharmacist and pharmacy technician “Hold the well-being of my patient to be my primary consideration.”
